Questions and Answers from E-Mail:

What do people say?

Q.

I have heard it said that beekeepers are among the most eloquent and evocative writers humanity has ever been honoured to witness. What do ya' think? - from Miss S. Boxinghamton, Grade Five Teacher, Boxinghamton, U.K., 7/18/02A. Who am I to disagree with you? You are a Grade Five teacher. The last time I had a disagreement with a Grade Five teacher, my knuckles were very soundly rapped by a wooden yardstick. So, yes, you are right. Beekeepers are awesome writers. But great words are not limited to beekeepers. Other people have also been lucid and lubricous - but only when writing about bees or beekeepers. Here are some samples:

Allen Dick (famous Canadian beekeeper):

"Money is not made by sweat -- although sweat is necessary -- money is made by brains." (HoneyBeeWorld.com)

A.I. Root:

"I think it safest to base our assumption, that bee culture, in some respects is a hazardous business, even amongst the most thorough and careful." - 1882.

Everett Franklin Phillips, Ph.D. wrote:

"The uninformed observer may fail utterly in his estimate of a location from the standpoint of the bee." - From his book Beekeeping, Cornell University, New York, 1928.

Ray Meyers, Florida Beekeeper:

"When I was 17, I told my mother, there are a lot of other ways to make a living than messing with bees like she and my old man did. Now I'm past 50, and Jesus Christ, I'm still messing with bees for a living!" - January, 1979.

Western Canada Beekeeper magazine:

"Beekeepers in Western Canada have been complaining for years of diminishing pasture for bees." - May, 1947(!) issue.

William Shakespeare:

"So work with the honey bee, creatures that by a rule of nature, teach the art of order to mankind."

Winnie the Pooh is quoted in the book, Friendship Day:

"Good friends are sweet as honey." Pooh may, of course, simply mean that good friends are nice to have. But for a darker interpretation of this statement, please follow this link.

W.Z. Hutchinson wrote:

"To choose any business simply because it is profitable is the height of folly. A business that is unusually profitable does not long remain such. It soon becomes over-crowded and looses its bonanza characteer. A man should choose a business because he and his surroundings are best adapted to the pursuit." - From his book Advanced Bee Culture, Flint, Michigan, 1918.